NAIROBI, (Xinhua) --The
financial aid that China has been providing African countries to stimulate their
economic growth has strengthened peace and stability in the continent, experts
said on Friday.

Speaking at
China-Africa cooperation in governance, peace and security forum in Nairobi, the
experts said Beijing’s economic and diplomatic muscle has been instrumental in
stabilizing the world’s second largest continent.

Peter
Kagwanja, CEO of Nairobi based pan-African thinktank Africa Policy Institute,
which organized the forum, said that peace, security and governance had gained
traction in China-Africa bilateral cooperation.

“China-Africa
relations have for decades been defined by development but now a conversation to
engage in matters of governance, peace and security has gained momentum,”
Kagwanja said.

Senior
policymakers and scholars attended the Nairobi forum that sought to stimulate
debate on strategic engagement with China to tackle Africa’s governance and
security challenges.

Kagwanja said
that China’s no strings attached support to Africa’s socio-economic
transformation agenda is providing durable solution to the crisis of poverty and
youth unemployment that has fuelled civil strife and insecurity in the
continent.

Martin Kimani,
director of Kenya’s National Counter-terrorism Center, said that many African
countries have showed interest in the Chinese model of addressing root causes of
instability that includes poverty and inequality.

“The Chinese
development model that has focused on wealth creation and elimination of mass
unemployment is at the core of Africa’s bid to promote peace and security,” said
Kimani.

David Monyae,
co-director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Johannesburg, said
that African countries could leverage on China’s diplomatic influence to
advocate for innovative conflict resolution models.

Monyae said
China has promoted development that is peaceful and harmonious and African
countries will stand to gain if they follow similar path after dealing with a
host of political and economic challenges.

He noted that
China has rallied behind multilateral programs to promote conflict resolution in
Africa.

Abdul Rahman
Lamin, a program specialist at UNESCO Regional Office, said that strengthening
Africa’s peace and security architecture should underpin the next phase of
bilateral cooperation with China.